Shoshone-Paiute Reliance on Fish and Other Riparian Resources

The Shoshone-Paiute of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation (DVIR) are traditional fishing Tribes of the northern Great Basin at the virtual upper end of the salmon migration route through Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and into Nevada. The Tribes have been increasingly deprived of salmon by the sequence of dams constructed during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, resulting in significant cultural, dietary, and even economic losses. The Shoshone-Paiute have, in fact, been among those Tribes most affected by the reduction in fish passage due to dams, irrigation, industrialization, and other factors such that they do not have local access to salmon at this time. Because of these developments, the Shoshone-Paiute have been forced to increasingly expand their geographic range to the far reaches of their homeland and beyond in search of
still existing salmon runs.

Phase I of this research reviews the published literature concerning Shoshone-Paiute fishing and documents the processes by which the Shoshone-Paiute have systematically been deprived of their fishing resource through the developments, their loss of ready accessibility to this vital resource on the DVIR, the continuing importance of fish to the Shoshone-Paiute people, and the Tribes’ claims of fishing rights to realize changes in the dams’ operation or other mitigation measures. It is clear that the right of the Shoshone-Paiute to continue fishing remains in effect despite the absence of fish runs proceeding from the Pacific to their homeland. Phase II examines three river systems in the Great Basin: the Owyhee, the Bruneau, and the Jarbidge and attempts to suggest potential traditional fishing sites and areas based on several criteria.